The typical residential garage door that is operated by an automatic door opener relays upon the motor drive, usually a chain or a worm gear to hold the door in either the open or closed position via the motor being stopped and the chain or worm gear through a sliding channel engagement structure (being parallel and adjacent to the garage ceiling) wherein the sliding channel engagement structure has a pivotal linkage attached to the upper portion of the garage door to pull the door upward and horizontal for opening and push the door horizontal and downward for closing. To accommodate motor or electrical failure, a disengagement lever is positioned to disengage the chain or worm gear from the sliding channel engagement structure, thus allowing the free manual opening and closing of the garage door as if the automatic door opener was not present.
Typically for accommodating the operation of the automatic garage door opener for a conventional garage door lock (i.e. a lock as between the garage door and the garage door frame) is disabled, to allow the automatic garage door opener to freely open and close the door. So therein lies the problem, once the disengagement lever is positioned to disengage the chain or worm gear from the sliding channel engagement structure, the garage door can be freely open and closed manually by anyone, thus if this disengagement lever can be accessed from outside of the garage door, the interior of the garage can easily be available to thieves. This has unfortunately turned out to be the case due to the flexibility of the relatively large garage door, a steel rod that can be feed therethrough the gap between the garage door and its frame on the upper portion of the garage door when the garage door is closed, wherein the steel rod can “hook” the disengagement lever and be pulled to disengage the lever thus allowing the sliding channel engagement structure to be free to allow the garage door to be freely manually opened by anyone on the outside or in the external environment of the garage door.
One solution to this problem is to add a zip tie, bolt, or rod to in effect lock to disengagement lever in the engaged position to the chain or worm gear, thus thwarting the thief in disengaging the lever with a steel rod, however, there are several problems with this solution in that the thief could pull their steel rod hard enough to overcome the zip tie, bolt, or rod to still get the garage door open, plus in an emergency, say a fire or power outage, the zip tie, bolt, or rod could in effect lock someone in their garage thus trapping them in their garage. A better solution would be to maintain the ease at which the original disengagement lever can be positioned to disengage the chain or worm gear from the sliding channel engagement structure in the event of an emergency to allow an escape of the individual through the garage door to outside of the house, while at the same time preventing access of the thieves steel rod to the disengagement lever.
Looking at the prior art in this area in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,548 to McGee, disclosed is a door lock system having a solenoid that includes a plunger retractable from a latch hole, which can be manually slid away from the latch hole also. In McGee, the solenoid is mounted on a slidable bracket by leaf springs with bent ends that permit the coil to pivot when the plunger is forced against a side of the latch hole.
Next, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,626 to Shoemaker, disclosed is a method and apparatus for selectively securing and un-securing a movable closure to a support frame, being designed specifically for a garage door opener locking mechanism as between the worm gear or chain and sliding channel. The security device in Shoemaker of the present invention comprises a locking assembly attached to the frame and a securing element attached to the closure. In Shoemaker, the locking assembly comprises a first rotating element having a detent, a second rotating element being engaged with the first rotating element, and a rotating latching element being selectively engagable with the second rotating element, thus requiring at least two distinct action movements to unlock the worm gear or chain from the sliding channel, thus making it difficult to unlock the mechanism with simply a steel rod inserted therethrough the top gap of the garage door to its frame, as previously described.
Further in Shoemaker, when the movable closure is secured, the detent of the first rotating element is securely coupled with the securing element and this mechanism allows for the lock to be dis-engaged rather easily from an individual who needs access to the outside during a garage door opener power, or house fire, or other emergency situation, as opposed to the previously described zip tie or bolt that would not be amenable to unlocking the garage door opener mechanism to open the garage door in an emergency.
Next, in the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,843 to Pirnie disclosed is an enclosure assembly for enclosing a tamper-evident security seal for sealing a hasp assembly that comprises a first enclosure portion and a second enclosure portion. In Pirnie, a post is coupled to the first enclosure portion for extending through the generally aligned holes of the hasp members of the hasp assembly to secure the hasp members together and position the first enclosure portion behind the security seal. Thus, in Pirnie the second enclosure portion includes an aperture formed therein for receiving the post so that the second enclosure member engages the first enclosure portion and covers the security seal. In this manner, in Pirnie the first enclosure portion and the second enclosure portion cooperate to at least substantially enclose the security seal wherein a latching member secures the second enclosure portion to the first enclosure to limit unauthorized access to the security seal.
Continuing, in the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 8,353,543 to Harrison, disclosed is a locking arrangement for a door that includes an upright operating bar mounted on the door for angular movement about its axis and a handle which is connected to the operating bar by a pivotal connection for engagement with a closure mechanism. In Harrison, the handle and the closure mechanism include co-operating apertures wherein a housing is adapted to cover the pivotal connection of the handle and at least a part of the closure mechanism, to help prevent easy pilfering of the door locking mechanism. Further, in Harrison, a releasable securing means passes through apertures formed in both the handle and the closure mechanism and secures the housing relative to the handle and the closure mechanism.
Next, in the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 6,793,253 to Bruwer, et al., disclosed is a lock which includes a bolt, a catch, and a handle for manually moving the catch from an operative position to an inoperative position, further a first link means and electrically actuable means for causing movement of the first link means between first and second positions are included. Wherein, in Bruwer, the first link means, at the first position, is translating movement of the handle in a first direction into movement of the bolt from a locked position to an unlocked position and at the said second position, allowing handle movement in the said first direction without corresponding movement of the bolt.
What is need is a movable latch housing apparatus that is of a simple construction that protects against an external rigid steel rod being able to easily hook the disengagement latch lever and thus pulling upon the lever to disengage the sliding channel engagement structure from the automatic garage door opener worm gear or chain resulting in the garage door being easily manually opened and allowing access to the outside thief to the garage interior. Further, the latch housing apparatus needs to be able to accommodate the existing easy desirable disengagement of the latch lever and thus pulling upon the lever to disengage the sliding channel engagement structure from the automatic garage door opener worm gear or chain to allow opening of the garage door in the event of motor failure, power outage, or other emergency, such as a fire to allow the garage interior occupant an easily available egress from the garage interior to the external environment. A further need, would be to have the latch housing apparatus be adaptable to an existing automatic garage door opener mechanism that includes the disengagement lever that is positioned to disengage the chain or worm gear from the sliding channel, the sliding channel engagement structure, and the linkage that is pivotally attached to the upper portion of the garage door, this way the latch housing apparatus could be installed upon an existing automatic garage door opener mechanism thus partially encasing the mechanism to help protect against an external steel rod having disengaging access to the disengagement lever.